In current infrastructures there are many different possibilities for mobile devices, for example mobile cellular phones or so called smart phones, to gain access to a wireless communication network. For example, when a user of a mobile device is walking down a main street of a larger city center, it is likely that there will be coverage from several wide area cellular networks of the second, third or fourth generation (2G, 3G or 4G). Additionally, there will also be a number of different small cells for wireless access utilizing for example wireless local area network standards (LAN 802.11) or other small cell technologies. Due to the variety of different available wireless cellular or local area networks, it may complicated to select an appropriate network, since the optimal network selection may be different for different users based on for example different priorities on charging, data rate expectations and so on. Various solutions for optimizing network selection are available, for example based on standardized solutions in 3GPP (third generation partnership project), for example the so called access network discovery and selection function (ANDSF) providing the possibility to control general network selection policies. Another solution is based on the so called Hot Spot 2.0 technology, where the mobile device or mobile terminal and its network selection managing function can get information on available 802.11 networks prior to selection.
However, the above-described solutions for network selection may not work appropriately when one or more base stations or access points are enabling networks for one or more mobile devices or terminals, but the base stations or access points are not always suitable to connect with, as will be shown in the following example. For example, some of the base stations or access points may be within movement compared to others. FIG. 1 shows a first base station 5 and its associated first cell 1, and a second base station 6 and its associated second cell 2. Furthermore, FIG. 1 shows a first moving cell 3 moving with a first vehicle 7 and a second moving cell 4 moving with a second vehicle 8. The first vehicle 7 is moving in the direction of arrow 9 and the second vehicle 8 is moving in the direction of arrow 10. Typical scenarios in this cell base communication network could be that a first user using mobile device 11 is walking down a street in a city where several vehicles 7, 8, for example vehicles of a public transportation like buses or trains, are passing in close proximity. These vehicles have their own small cells 3, 4 available. Another second user may be located within a moving vehicle, for example within vehicle 7, using a second mobile device 12. For mobile device 11, the most suitable cell to register at is cell 2 even when cell 4 is available while vehicle 8 is passing along the mobile device 11. For mobile device 12 the moving cell 3 provided by vehicle 7 is the most suitable cell to register at even when cells 1 or 2 are available during traveling. However, currently available solutions for network selection cannot distinguish the above-described different user scenarios and cannot know the full context defining if it is suitable to connect to a certain network or not. In practice this could mean that neither the network nor the mobile device can control its network selection based on whether the mobile device is located within a moving vehicle or at a sidewalk with a moving vehicle just close by.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a network selection mechanism which solves the above-described problem.